Lanao Sur anti-polio campaign to start Oct.14

Only for illustration. Obtained from Dept. of Health information materials archive.

LANAO DEL SUR --- The police and the Western Mindanao Command will mobilize Monday in support of the mass anti-polio immunization drive in the province.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, the Department of Health and the health ministry of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will launch on Monday in Marawi City, capital of Lanao del Sur, a Mindanao-wide anti-polio campaign.

The event shall also mark the start of a long-range anti-polio vaccination program in Lanao del Sur that the office of Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. and the Integrated Provincial Health Office under physician Allen Minalang will jointly implement in all of the 39 towns in Lanao del Sur.

“The 103rd Brigade and all of its units will help the provincial government of Lanao del Sur carry out the activity,” Major Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of WestMinCom said Saturday.

The Army brigade covers Marawi City and nearby towns in Lanao del Sur.

Minalang said all is set for Monday’s symbolic start of their province-wide anti-polio initiative that local officials in all towns in the first and second districts of Lanao del Sur are to assist.

“We are thankful to the provincial government and all sectors helping us put forward this initiative,” Minalang said.

Col. Madzgani Mukaram, director of the Lanao del Sur provincial police, said Islamic theologians in their ranks shall help disseminate to Maranao communities the importance of having children vaccinated to protect them from poliomyelitis.

“Our municipal police offices will help facilitate the vaccination campaign in all barangays in the province,” Mukaram said.

Mukaram said they will also secure the health workers tasked to conduct on-field vaccination activities on Monday.

Sobejana said Army units in Lanao del Sur have medics who are ready to help the provincial government initiate Monday’s mass vaccination activity.

Security has been tightened in Marawi City since Friday as part of the preparations for Monday's presence of representatives from UNICEF and the DOH central office to launch the anti-polio campaign that would benefit children in BARMM and neighboring regions.